Patent Application EP-A-1 074 369 (or U.S. Pat. No. 6,875,297) described a process for manufacturing a composite part of given thickness, of convex shape comprising reinforcement fibres parallel to at least one preferred direction of reinforcement, said fibres being embedded in a matrix based on a composition comprising a resin that can be cured by ionizing radiation, the process comprising the following steps:                arranging said reinforcement fibres substantially parallel to one plane and impregnating them with said composition in the liquid state;        exposing the composition containing said fibres, in a layer of thickness less than said given thickness, to ionizing radiation in order to partially polymerize the resin and obtain a precomposite in which said composition is in the solid phase;        removing individual sections from the solid precomposite thus obtained and applying them to a support, the surface of which is non-planar in shape, by stacking them on one another in a number dictated by said given thickness, and by making them closely fit said shape of the support and thus create a stack of stressed individual sections; and        finally subjecting the stack thus obtained to a final moulding, at high pressure and temperature, in order to continue the polymerization of the resin and to thus join the various precomposite sections together.        
Due to the process described, it is possible to obtain composite parts that can be used, in particular, for manufacturing non-pneumatic tires for a motor vehicle.
However, one drawback of this process is that it is necessary, after solidifying the resin-based matrix, to first cut the solid precomposite into individual sections, then to superpose, in the final desired shape, the stressed individual sections; so many successive handling operations are penalizing from an industrial viewpoint and are in contradiction with the pursuit of high production rates.
Patent Application EP-A-1 174 250 (or U.S. Pat. No. 6,926,853) proposed:                degassing the arrangement of fibres before impregnating it;        after degassing then impregnating under vacuum, passing the liquid pre-preg through a sizing die having a cross section of predetermined area and shape, to provide said pre-preg with a predetermined shape such as, for example, that of a thread with a round cross section (see, for example, FIG. 1 to 3) or more particularly a tape shape (FIG. 4 to 7);        then, downstream of the die, stabilizing said thread or tape by substantial solidification of the resin in a chamber known as a stabilization chamber comprising a series of irradiation tubes (referenced, for example, 131 and 231 respectively in FIGS. 1 and 4) that emit in the UV/visible range; and        finally winding said solid (stabilized) thread or tape onto a large-diameter receiving reel (referenced, for example, 141 in FIG. 1), for intermediate storage.        
It is then possible to prepare composite parts by unwinding then rewinding of solid layers of said thread or tape, around any support of suitable shape.
However, when the preceding drawbacks of sectioning and assembling prestressed sections are thus removed, it still remains in fine a curing operation in a mould under a very high pressure, without which it is impossible to attach said individual sections together and consequently obtain composite parts that have a high fatigue strength, in particular a high shear strength especially illustrated by very high “ILSS” (Inter Laminar Shear Strength) values.
However, the curing operation in a mould under a high pressure has, in a known manner, its own drawnbacks among which are a high mould cost, the need for control of the sealing and for a homogeneous pressure distribution, which are responsible for a high final industrial cost. By way of example, in order to have a uniform curing pressure at very high pressures of around 50 bar, it is necessary to use flexible curing membranes, the lifetime of which proves limited.